21/12/2017, In a referendum sanctioned by Madrid, the two pro-independence parties
of Catalonia won a small total majority in the 135-seat Catalan Parliament;
however the biggest single party was for union with Spain.

27/10/2017, Catalonia formally declared independence
from Spain, just as Spain invoked
Article 155 of its Constitution, never before used, to enable it to take direct
control of Catalonia and suspend its regional government.

1/10/2017, Catalonia held a referendum, which was
strongly opposed by the Spanish Government, on independence. Madrid took down web-based polling sites, and
4,000 police occupied and closed down over half the polling stations.
Pro-independence Catalans occupied, from Friday night, the schools which were
to be used as polling stations. There were riots in Barcelona, with over 800
injured as police fired rubber bullets, which are illegal in Catalonia but not
in the rest of Spain. In the event 2.26 million managed to vote, out of an
electorate of just over 5 million. Of this turnout of 43.6%, 90% voted Yes to
independence. Catalonia reasserted on 2/10/2017 that it would declare
independence: Spain said it would invoke Article 155 of its Constitution to
suspend and take over the regional government of Catalonia.

20/9/2017, Police in Catalonia arrested 14 Catalan government officials suspected
of organising the referendum, and seized 10 million ballot papers. 40,000
people protested in Barcelona against the police actions.

6/9/2017, The Catalan Parliament approved the independence referendum
legislation after a heated 11-hour session in which 52 opposition MPs walked
out. The legislation was declared illegal by Madrid the following day, but
Catalonia vowed to go ahead with the poll.

17/8/2017, An Islamist terror attack
killed 13 and injured over 100 in Barcelona. A vehicle was driven into
pedestrians in Las Ramblas. In a related incident, a car was intercepted by
police in the resort of Cambrils; several injuries occurred and the car
occupants were killed.

9/6/2017, Carles Puigdemont, recent successor to Mas as regional President of
Catalonia, announced he would hold an independence referendum on 1/10/2017.
Madrid denounced the referendum as illegal and said it would block the poll by
any means it could, legal and political.

9/11/2014, In Catalonia a poll was held by the regional government on
independence from Spain. The national government had already declared it would
not consider the poll result binding, and anti-separatists boycotted the poll.
2.3 million voted out of an electorate of 5.4 million. Of these, 1.6 million
answered ‘yes’ to both questions, ‘Do you think Catalonia should be a State’,
and ‘If so, should it be independent from Spain’. Artur Mas, leader of the
independence campaign, claimed a success. Catalonia complained that as Spain’s
wealthiest region, it contributed more to the State than it received in return.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party, replied
that money was short and Catalonia must wait until the general economy improved.

27/10/2012, Large protests in Madrid
against austerity cuts.

11/9/2012, Over a million people peacefully protested on the streets of Barcelona
on Catalonia’s National Day, demanding independence from Spain. This
demonstration was to become an annual event.

20/10/2011, Basque
separatist militant organisation ETA declared an end to its 43-year campaign of
political violence,
which had killed over 800 people since 1968.

28/10/2010, The Spanish Constitutional Court struck out parts of a 2906 Charter on
Catalan autonomy which increased the territory’s fiscal and judicial powers,
and described it as a ‘nation’. The Court ruled that the word ;nation’ had no
meaning and rejected the preferential use of Catalan over Spanish in municipal
services. Two weeks later hundreds of thousands protested on the streets of
Barcelona, chanting ‘We are a nation; we decide’.

30/12/2006, The Basque Nationalist group
ETA detonated a bomb at Madrid-Barajas Airport, ending a 9-month ceasefire.

22/3/2006, The Basque
terrorist group ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in Spain.

11/3/2004Terrorist bombs killed 191 and injured 1200 more at Madrid’s main Atocha
railway station and on trains outside the station in the morning rush hour. Ten bombs in all exploded
on four separate trains. ETA, the Basque
independence group, was blamed at first but later blame shifted to a
Moroccan group with links to Al Quaeda.

16/9/1998, The
Basque guerrilla group ETA announced a ‘total and indefinite ceasefire’ to take
effect from 18/9/1998.

21/6/1993.Basque separatists
set off a car bomb in Madrid, killing 5 senior military officers in a minibus.
Two others were also killed, and 24 injured.

6/2/1992.The Basque separatist group ETA set off a
bomb in the centre of Madrid.

14/1/1990, 43 died in a fire in a disco in Saragosa, Spain.

14/12/1988, In Spain, 8 million workers went on strike against
government economic policies.

19/6/1987.21 died and 45 were
injured in a Basque separatist car bomb in an underground car park in
Barcelona. Amongst the dead were several young children. The atrocity alienated
all but the most militant ETA supporters; withFrancogone, the organisation now
lacked any real purpose.

15/12/1982,The border between Spain and Gibraltar opened for the first time in 13
years, to pedestrians only.

28/10/1982, The Socialist Party won Spanish elections, and Felipe Gonzalez
was elected Prime Minister.

30/5/1982. Spain joined NATO.She became the 16th member and the first to join NATO since
West Germany was admitted in 1955.

8/1/1982. Spain ended its 12-year siege
of Gibraltar and reopened the frontier. In return Britain ended its opposition
to Spain joining the EEC and NATO. See 27/12/1978.

23/2/1981, In Spain,
Fascist army officers loyal to the memory of dictator Francisco
Franco stormed the Cortes (Parliament) ands held hundreds hostage.
The rebel leader, Colonel Tejero de Molina, took the podium, gun
in hand, to announce a coup. Meanwhile the Francoist General Jaime del Bosch, the man
behind the coup, declared a state of emergency in eastern Spain and mobilised
his troops. King
Juan Carlos, that evening, made a TV broadcast saying he had ordered
the army to suppress the revolt. King Carlos was counting on the support of the
people and most of the army. The return of the Spanish monarchy after Franco’s
death in 1975 had brought the first free elections in Spain for 40 years. The Fascist rebels hesitated, and Spanish democracy
was saved.

10/4/1980,Spain and the UK agreed to reopen
the border with Gibraltar, closed since 1969.

27/12/1978. Spain
became a democracy as a new Constitution was approved, after 40 years of
dictatorship. See 8/1/1982.

20/11/1978. An attempted military coup in Spain failed.

28/7/1977, Spain formally applied to join the EC.

15/6/1977, Spain held
its first democratic elections, after 41 years of dictatorship under
Franco.

29/4/1977, Trades
Unions were legalised in Spain for the first time since 1936.

9/4/1977.Spain
legalised the Communist Party after a 38-year ban.

25/4/1976.Portugal held legislative
elections, exactly a year after the previous elections.

22/11/1975.The Spanish monarchy was restored following the
death of General
Franco. King Juan Carlos II became King of Spain on
27/11/1975. See 30/10/1975.

20/11/1975.General Franco, Spanish Head of State from 1936,
died aged 82. He became leader of Spain following the Spanish Civil War
(1935-39), due to lack of intervention by other European countries and the
backing of Fascist Italy and Germany. Franco stayed out of World War Two
because Adolf Hitler would not agree to cede France’s North African territories
to Spain. In 1949 Franco declared Spain to be a monarchy,
although there was no monarch until, in 1954, he declared that his heir would
be Juan
Carlos, grandson of the last Spanish King. Carlos took Spain in a different
political direction from Franco, adopting a democratic constitution in
1978 afterreferendum showed 90% of
Spaniards in favour of this.

30/10/1975. Prince Juan Carlos became acting Head of State
in Spain after dictator Franco became ill. See 20/11/1975.

21/10/1975. Spain’s 82
year old General Franco suffered his third
heart attack in five days. He died on 20/11/1975. See 22/11/1975.

26/4/1975, In Portugal’s
first free elections for 50 years, former exile Mario Soares won for the
Portuguese Socialist Party.

15/5/1974, General Spinola became ruler of Portugal, see
25/4/1974. A moderate conservative senior army officer, Spinola was unable to block the
rise of the Communists in Portugal and he resigned in September 1974. Spinola
attempted a counter-coup against the Communists in March 1975 but this failed. In
April 1975 Mario
Soares’s moderate socialist party won elections, but power remained
with the Supreme Revolutionary Council of Marxist Officers, led by Captain Otelo
de Carvalho. Portugal seemed to be on the way to becoming a
Communist state, but in November 1975 moderate socialists under Colonel Ramalho
Eanes arrested Carvalho and other communist officers, with
little resistance. Eanes became president in 1976 with Soares
as Prime Minister, restoring democracy.

25/4/1974, A military coup in Portugal.PM Marcello
Caetano was overthrown in an almost bloodless military coup organised by
left-wing junior officers of the secret Movimento das Forcas Armadas (MFA).There was dissatisfaction with Portugal’s demoralising colonial wars in
Angola and Mozambique. The coup provoked rejoicing in Lisbon and the red
carnation was adopted as symbpl of the revolution. See 15/5/1974.

1973, Tourist arrivals in Spain numbered nearly 35 million, against just
over 4 million in 1959. Tourist income in 1973 wsas US$ 3,1 billion, against
US$ 125 million in 1959. The 1959 toursists came to see spain’s culture and
history, the Prado and Alhambra. The 1973 tourists came for the sun, sand and
sea.

20/12/1973, The Spanish Prime Minister, Luis Carrero Blanca, was killed
in Madrid by a Basque ETA bomb which blew his car up. Every day Blanca attended Mass at the same
church at the same time then took the same route beck to his office. This
predictability enabled a group of five young ETA men, pretending to be arts
students, to rent a ground floor flat on his route then dig a tunnel out under
the road and detonate 80 kg of explosives as his car passed overhead. The car
seemed to have completely disappeared; it had in fact been blasted over a
four-storey building to land in the internal courtyard.

Luis
Blanca had been
chosen by General
Franco as his successor, and had promised to continue Franco’s
policies. Many Spaniards disliked this, not just the Basques, and after the
event jokes circulated about ‘Spain’s first astronaut’ and a folk song went
“Whoops, there he goes”.

22/7/1969, Spanish dictator General Franco named Juan Carlos,
grandson of King
Alfonso XIII, as his heir apparent.

4//7/1969.Franco offered Gibraltarians Spanish citizenship.

20/12/1968.Franco banished Prince Carlos from Spain.

27/9/1968,Antonio Salazar resigned as Prime Minister of Portugal, after
holding the office for 36 years and 84 days, the longest term of office of any
politician.

6/5/1968,Spain closed its
border with Gibraltar to all but Spaniards.

10/9/1967.Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to stay British. 12,318
voted for Britain, and 44 for Spanish rule. In 2002 the British government was
considering sharing sovereignty with Spain but the Gibraltarian governor was to
hold an unauthorised referendum, which he believed would show the majority
wished to stay British.

3/2/1965, Spain began a blockade of Gibraltar.

17/1/1966, A US bomber aircraft on exercises was attempting
to refuel mid-air over Spain when an error resulted in the fuel boom from the
other aircraft clipping the bomber’s wing. The bomber crashed in flames; its
crew parachuted to safety. However the bomber was carrying four Hydrogen Bombs.
The Bombs were not armed so the electrical sequence necessary to detonate the
fission bomb that would have set off the Hydrogen bomb never initiated. In
other fortunate events, the parachutes on the bombs failed so they buried
themselves deep in the soil, limiting radiation dispersal, and a breeze carried
much of the radiation out to see as flaming bits of aircraft rained down in the
area.

10/9/1963.The people
of Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to
remain under British rule.

1959, ETA
was set up to secure the independence of the Basque Country, by violence if
necessary.

7/6/1957.A travel report published in
London said a small fishing village called Benidorm was the place for summer holidays, with
guaranteed sun and low prices. Tourist development in Benidorm had just begun,
with a German company building bed and breakfast accommodation there. There
were warnings that the bathrooms may be spartan, with some taps only giving
salt water.

29/6/1956, Pedro Santana Lopes, Prime Minister of Portugal, was
born.

1/12/1954, The Estádio
da Luz football stadium opened in Lisbon, Portugal.

27/12/1950. US and Spain resumed diplomatic relations.

6/7/1947.
Spain voted
to have a King when Franco died.

8/12/1945, At the Nuremberg Trials it emerged that Hitler
had expected the Spanish General Franco to seize Gibraltar from
Britain.

29/4/1944, Bernardino Machado,
President of Portugal, died.

28/2/1941, Alfonso I, former King of Spain, who had
been forced into exile when Spain became a Republic in 1931, died in Rome.

12/2/1941, General Franco travelled to Bordighera, Italy, to
meet Mussolini.Again Franco avoided
any significant commitment to the Axis cause.

23/10/1940,General Franco
travelled to Hendaye, France, to meet with Hitler.Franco
avoided making a serious commitment to the Axis cause.

8/5/1939.Spain left the League of Nations.

29/3/1939,Franco was named ‘Caudillo’, or ‘Leader of the
Nation’.

28/3/1939. Spanish Civil Warended. Franco entered Madrid, after a
siege of almost three years.

1/3/1939.The US recognised Franco’s government in Spain.

28/2/1939.Britain and France recognised Franco’s regime in
Spain.

26/1/1939.Barcelona fell without resistance to the Nationalists
under Franco,
with help from Italy. This doomed the Republican cause, which finally surrendered
on 28/3/1939. Barcelona had been the seat of an autonomous Catalan
government, established on 2/8/1936.

25/1/1939, The Juan
Negrín government fled Barcelona. Another capital was set up in Figueres
the following day.

3/1/1939, The Battle of the Segre ended in Nationalist victory in
the Spanish Civil War.

25/5/1938, Alicante was bombed by General
Franco’s aircraft in the Spanish Civil War.

3/4/1938.Francotook Lerida, a key town in Catalonia.

16/3/1938, The Aviazione Legionaria began bombing Barcelona.

5/1/1938. King Juan Carlos I of Spain, who succeeded General Franco
as Head of State, born.

21/12/1937.Republicans captured Franco’s stronghold of Teruel.

28/11/1937.Franco ordered the Spanish Republican
government forces to surrender by 12/12/1937 or face a massive offensive.

28/10/1937.The Spanish Government
moved from Valencia to Barcelona.

21/10/1937.Gijon, the last Republican stronghold in northern Spain, fell
to Franco’s
forces.

25/8/1937, Franco’sforces
captured Santander.

10/8/1937, In the Spanish Civil War, the Regional Defence Council of
Aragon was dissolved.

30/6/1937, Portugal stopped
co-operating with the Non-Intervention Committee patrol agreement and ordered
British observers off its soil.

29/6/1937,Italy and Germany opposed Anglo-French patrols
around the coast of Spain.

19/6/1937.Franco’sforces
captured Bilbao.

13/6/1937, The Nationalists came within two miles of Bilbao,
capturing a range of hills east of the city.

31/5/1937.The German fleet bombarded the Spanish port
of Almeria.

26/4/1937.The
German air force destroyed the Basque city and cultural centre of Guernica,
Spain. Thousands of civilians died. It was market day in Guernica
when the Germans raided, in support of Franco’sNationalists. The town was a communications
centre with a munitions factory, but the bombing with incendiaries was random;
aircraft also raked the town with machine gun fire. 1,000, mainly civilians,
died.43 aircraft from the German Condor
Legion, under Colonel
Wolfgang von Richtofen, carried out the raid.This became the scene of one of Picasso’s most famous paintings.

1/12/1936.German forces landed at Cadiz to help Franco’s nationalist
rebels.

18/11/1936,Hitler and Mussolini recognised Franco’s provisional
government in Burgos.

7/11/1936.The Spanish Government
fled to Valencia.

6/11/1936, Franco’s forces were besieging Madrid.

29/10/1936.Republican troops south of Madrid were holding back Franco’s Nationalist
forces.

23/10/1936, Germany sent
the ‘Condor’ legion to Spain to assist Franco’s forces.

7/10/1936, Aguirre was elected President of the Basque Republic (Euskadi), honouring a promise for autonomy within Spain.

28/9/1936.General Franco, 44, was made head of the rebel Nationalist forces in
Spain.

17/9/1936. Franco’s troops took Maqueda, between Madrid and Toledo.

4/8/1936.Badajoz was captured
by the Spanish Nationalists underFranco
as they fought northwards. This cut off the Republicans
from the route to Portugal,
and prepared the way for a nationalist advance on Madrid from the north
and west.

2/8/1936.An autonomous Catalan government was established in Barcelona.
See 26/1/1939.

24/7/1936.The Spanish government
appealed for foreign help in the Civil War.

18/7/1936.The Spanish Civil
War began when the army, under Generals Francisco
Franco and EmilioMola, revolted against the Republican
Government. It lasted three years.

7/4/1936, President Zamora of Spain was
deposed.

20/2/1936, A left-wing government took control in
Spain, under Manuel
Azana.

19/2/1936, The Spanish
Republic announced an amnesty for the rebels in the 1934 Asturian revolt.

16/2/1936.Victory for the Left in Spanish elections.

8/10/1934.Despite martial law, there was fierce
fighting in Spainand Catalonia
was trying to set up its own government, with Barcelona
as the capital.

25/4/1934.Martial law was declared in Spain as the
government resigned.

29/10/1933, The Falange
Party, a Spanish version of fascism, advocating violence to gain its ends,
was launched by Jose
Antonio Primo de Rivera. The Party won just 0.7% of the vote in the
general elections of 16/2/1936; however the Falange then grew rapidly as Spanish middle-class youth,
disillusioned with the mainstream parties, joined it en masse. Falange activists
played a key role in organising the street fighting that was a prelude to the
Civil war that broke out in July 1936; during the early stages of the Civil war
itself, the Falange controlled the
press and propaganda in the Natioinalist-controlled areas. However its leader, Jose Antonio,
was executed in Alicante jail in November 1936. In April 1937 General Franco
forcibly united the Falange with his
own Carlist Nationalist organisation.

10/1/1933. Civil disorder broke out in Spain and the army
declared martial law.

2/1/1933, Anarchist
uprising in Barcelona.

25.9/1932, Catalonia
in Spain became autonomous, with its own Parliament, language and flag.

5/7/1932.Oliveira Salazarbecame
virtual dictator of Portugal at the head of a Fascist regime.Portugal was in the middle of an economic and
political crisis.

2/7/1932, Manuel II, ex-King of Portugal, died.

22/1/1932.A Communist uprising in northern Spain
was crushed.

28/6/1931.Socialists won the Spanish general elections.

11/6/1931.Martial law was imposed on 7
Spanish cities.

14/4/1931King Alfonso XIII of Spain abdicated and left
Spain to settle in Rome, when the Republicans gained overwhelming success in
Spain’s municipal elections. Alfonso (1886 –1941) had ruled Spain since
1902. Alfonso
had supported the dictator Primo de Rivera, who overthrew the Spanish
Parliament in 1923; Rivera was ousted in 1930 and the army also
opposed Alfonso.

12/4/1931.In
Spain, elections showed a big majority for the Republicans.
King Alfonso
XIIIabdicated on
14/4/1931, and left for exile in Rome.

19/1/1919.A pro-monarchist uprising in Portugal;
the monarchy was proclaimed at Oporto.

15/12/1918, The Portuguese President
Sidonio Paes was assassinated.

1917, In Spain, the Conferedacion
Nacional Catolica-Agrario (CNCA) was set up by large landowners, to combat
the rising power of the rural and urban working classes. The middle-c;lass,
Conservative, religious, CNCA attracted the support of smaller landowners
particularly in northern and central Spain and by 1919 boasted 500,000 members.
It supported the Right wing during the Spanish Civil War. In 1942 it became the
National Union of Rural Co-operatives (UNCC).

1917, Manoel Jose de Arriaga, first elected President of Portugal 1911-15 after
the overthrow of King Manuel II (born 1840), died.

1915, Franco, born 1892, became the
youngest Captain in the Spanish Army.

27/11/1912. France and Spain agreed on their respective spheres
of influence in Morocco.

1911, In Spain the Comferedacion
Nacional de Trabajo (CNT), a leftist-anarchist movement, was founded. It
became the largest trade union in Spain, drawing support from the Barcelona,
Madrid and Saragossa regions. However the CNT’sanarchist tendencies caused differences with the Republicans, and these
splits undermined the Leftist war effort against the Nationalists in the Civil
War.

4/10/1910, Portugal, having been a monarchy since 1128, became a Republic. King Manuel II
fled to Britain, where he died in 1932, after a 2-year reign. The new
Portuguese Republic was headed by 67-year old Teofilo Braga.

3/10/1910.A
revolution in Portugal ousted King Manoel II. He and his
mother left for England and Portugal became a Republic on 7/10/1910.

26/7/1909, A general strike began in Barcelona, lasting until 26/9/1909. There was rioting across Catalonia.

1/2/1908, Carlos I, King of Portugal, was assassinated along with his
son, Prince
Luiz, by soldiers after a failed revolution. He was succeeded by his
18-year old younger son, Manoel II.

16/5/1907. Spain
signed the Cartagena Pact with
Britain and France, to counter a
perceived German threat to annex the Balearic and Canary Islands.

14/5/1901, End of a General
Strike in Barcelona,
Spain, that had begun on 7/5/1901.

31/7/1895, The Basque
Nationalist Party was founded by Sabino de Arana Goiri (1865-1903). He did much
to revive the Basque language, publishing newspapers, magazines, and books on
subjects ranging from grammar to history in this language. He also coined the
word Euzkadi for the Basque national
people, and designed the first Basque
national flag, the Ikurrrina.

4/12/1892,General Franco, Spanish dictator, was born in
El Ferrol.

27/3/1890, Spain
adopted universal (male) suffrage.

18/1/1890, Death of King Amadeus I of Spain (born 1845).

19/10/1889, King Luis I of Portugal died aged 51 (born 1838). He was
succeeded by his son, Carlos I, aged 26.

24/11/1885, Alphonso XII
of Spain died of tuberculosis, aged 27. He was later succeeded by his
posthumous son, Alphonso
XIII. Born in 1857, son of the exiled Queen Isabella, he was chosen as
monarch to succeed Amadeus of Aosta in 1874. He successfully
suppressed the Carlist Rebellion of 1876.

1/12/1874, The
17-year-old Alphonso
XII of Spain issued a proclamation from Sandhurst announcing himself
as sole heir to the Spanish throne, and formally beginning his reign.

12/2/1873, Amadeus I
of Spain abdicated and a Republic was proclaimed. Foreign Minister Emilio Cistelar
y Ripoli became Prime Minister.

5/1872, The Pretender to the Spanish throne, Don Carlos, entered Navarre.
However his forces were routed and he was forced to retreat back into the
Pyrenees.

1870, Amadeus I (1845-90) became king of Spain. He attempted to goverm constitutionally but
was thwarted by the existing undemocratic instituions of the country. He
abdicated in 1873 and retired to Italy as Duke of Aosta.

18/5/1845, Don Carlos relinquished his right to the
Spanish Crown in favour of his son.

13/5/1844, Spain set up a military peacekeeping force, the Guardia Civil.

25/10/1839.Spain passed a law removing all independence
from the Basque provinces. This law was applied to Navarre in 1841, and to
Alava, Guipuzcoa, and Vizcaya in 1876, and converted these into provinces of
Spain.

15/7/1834, The Spanish Inquisition, founded
in 1478, was disbanded.

16/5/1834, The
6-year civil war in Portugal ended. Miguel was defeated and left the country.

4/7/1828, Dom Miguel, Regent
of Portugal, had himself proclaimed King after a coup in May 1828. Civil war
began and his niece, 9-year old Maria, was taken to England for her safety.

10/3/1826, King John VI of
Portugal died aged 56. He was succeeded by his son, Dom Pedro of Brazil, as Pedro IV;
however Pedro
IV refused to leave Brazil, and abdicated in favour of his infant
daughter, Maria.

23/9/1823, French
troops, suppressing a rebellion in Spain, took Cadiz. The rebels surrendered Ferdinand VII,
who was restored to the Spanish throne.

31/8/1823, At the Battle of the Trocadero, French troops
defeated Spanish rebels.

30/6/1822, In Spain, rebels took King Ferdinand VII prisoner.

24/8/1820, A revolt
broke out in Portugal as discontent grew over excessive British influence in the country,
and the absence of the King, who was still in Brazil.

20/3/1816, Queen Maria I of
Portugal died aged 81. She was succeeded by her son, Joao I, but he remained in Brazil.

1814, By decree, Spain exiled
the ‘Afrencesados’, some 10,000 in number, the Spanish politicians and
intellectuals who had supported Napoleon and the reforms he introduced to
Spain during his occupation of the country.

21/6/1813. The victory of Wellington at Vitoria in the Peninsular War. Spain
was lost by the French. Napoleon had deposed the Spanish monarch and replaced him with
his own brother, Joseph. However this act provoked major Spanish popular
resistance against France and led to Napoleon’s defeat there.

16/5/1811, The Battle
of Albuera in Spain, at which a combined English (under Sir Arthur Wellesley), Portuguese, and Spanish force
defeated the French under Marshal Soult.

10/3/1811. During the Peninsular War, Badajoz was surrendered to
the French after its Spanish Commander had been bribed into the
capitulation. The French had unsuccessfully attacked Badajoz in 1808 and 1809.

16/1/1809, The British won a rearguard action against the French, under Nicolas Soult, at Corunna in the
Peninsular War. Britain had
invaded Spain in the hope of raising anti-Napoleonic support but found this
lacking. Corunna enabled the British forces to be successfully evacuated. However
the British commander, Sir John Moore, was killed in this battle.

21/8/1808,British troops under Wellington
defeated the French under General Junot.This was at the Battle of Vimiero, during the Peninsular War.The Peninsular War absorbed some 300,000 of Napoleon’s
best troops, andwas ended when Napoleon
heard reports that Austria, backed by Britain, was arming against him.

2/5/1808. The people of Madrid
rebelled against Napoleon’s rule.

21/10/1805. Battle of Trafalgar.Death of Nelson. Nelson blockaded the combined fleets of France
and Spain in Cadiz. The French Admiral, Villeneuve, attempted to break out, but
British ships sank or captured most of the French and Spanish ships. The
French had planned to link up with the Spanish fleet in the West Indies and so
lure the British into giving chase across the Atlantic. However Nelson
guessed at the French tactics and the Admiralty was warned. A British fleet
under Calder
found the French fleet off Cape Finistere and they put into Spanish harbours.
The French fleet later emerged to sail, not for Britain, but to return to the
Mediterranean. The French were intercepted off Cape Trafalgar, and destroyed in
the Battle of Trafalgar.

6/7/1801, The English and Spanish
fleets were defeated off Algeceiras.

5/10/1796. Spain declared war on Britain by signing
the Treaty of San Il Defonso, allying it with Revolutionary France. The
Treaty was engineered by Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy, lover ofKing Charles IV’s wife Maria Luisa.
De Godoywas opposed to monarchist Britain.
Many ordinary Spanish opposed the Treaty, which diminished Spain as an imperial
power and weakened her influence in The Americas.

14/12/1788, Charles IV (1748-1819) became King of Spain.

14/10/1784, Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, was born.

6/2/1783, The siege of
Gibraltar ended.

5/2/1782, Spain captured Minorca from Britain.

16/1/1780. British troops under Admiral Rodney
defeated the Spanish, destroying
all but four ships of their fleet, at Cape St Vincent. This temporarily lifted the siege of Gibraltar.

16/6/1779, The siege of
Gibraltar began.

24/2/1777, Joseph I, King of Portugal, died.

1765, Portugal abolished the auto-da-fe (act of faith) parade in Lisbon;
this had often been used as an excuse for antisemitism or persecution of
‘heretic’ Christians.

25/8/1762, The city of Almeida was captured by Spain, from
Portugal. Portugal was allied with Britain in a war against Spain.

2/1/1762, Britain
declared war on Spain, three months after William Pitt resigned

10/8/1759, Ferdinand VI, King of Spain, died.

14/3/1757, Admiral John Byng was executed by firing squad
on the Monarque at Portsmouth, for his failure to relieve the island of Minorca, under attack by the French, at the start of the Seven Years War. In fact his fleet
was probably inadequate for the task; having failed to prevent a French landing
on Minorca, he took advice to leave the British garrison to its fate.

31/7/1750, Joao V of
Portugal died aged 61, after reigning for 44 years. He was succeeded by his
son, 35, Jose
Manuel.

9/7/1746, Philip V, King of Spain, died, insane, aged 62. He reigned for 46 years. He was
succeeded by his son, Ferdinand VI.

9/11/1729.Spain signed the Treaty of Seville, renouncing its right
to Gibraltar in favour of the British.

17/2/1720, By the
Treaty of the Hague, the Allies forced King Philip V of Spain to renounce his claim
on Sicily; also Victor
Amadeus II of Savoy gave up Sicily to Austria in exchange for
Sardinia (see 2/8/1718).

11/8/1718, Admiral Byng
destroyed the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro.

2/8/1718, A Quadruple Alliance was formed between
Britain, France, Holland, and Austria, against Spain, after Spain seized Sardinia
and Sicily, threatening another European war. Under the Treaty of Utrecht
(11/4/1713) Sardinia had been assigned to Austria and Sicily to Savoy (see also
17/2/1720). However King Philip V of Spain,
influenced by his wife Elizabeth Farnese of Parma and her advisor Giulio Alberoni,
seized these islands. Admiral Byng was sent to defend Sicily, with
Austrian troops. In a sea battle off Cape Passaro, he totally destroyed the
Spanish fleet. Meanwhile French troops occupied northern Spain. The purpose of the Quadruple Alliance were, to maintain
the terms of the Peace of Utrecht, for Spain to renounce any claim to the
French throne, and to guarantee the Protestant succession in Britain. The four
powers would also assist each other if any were attacked. Spain initially
backed a Jacobite invasion of Britain, but after the dismissal of Cardinal
Alberoni in December 1719 Spain changed policy and joined the
Alliance, which provided a forum to discuss territorial disputes in Europe.

1715,
Catalonia lost its independence to Spain, Madrid declared the Catalan language
illegal.

1714,
Spanish troops under King Felipe V captured Barcelona.

23/9/1713, Ferdinand VI, King of Spain, was born.

10/12/1710, The Battle of Villaviciosa.

11/9/1709, At the Battle of Malplaquet in northern France,
near Mons, The
Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene won a costly victory over the
French in the War
of the Spanish Succession.

31/8/1709, Battle of Malplaquet
began.

12/7/1708.The French were defeated at Oudenarde in western
Belgium, by Marlborough
and Eugene
of Savoy. Marlborough also captured Lille after a four-month siege.This was during the War of the Spanish
Succession.

30/6/1708, Battle of Oudenarde began.

25/4/1707, The Battle of Alamanza, fought during the War of the
Spanish Succession. The British and the Dutch together defeated the
French.

23/5/1706, The Battle
of Ramillies, between Louvain and Namur in Belgium.Allied British and Dutch armies under Marlborough
intercepted a French offensive. 15,000 French and 5,000 Allied soldiers died.
The result of Ramillies was that
Brussels, Antwerp and most of the Spanish Netherlands surrendered. By the end
of 1706 the French held only Namur and Mons in The Netherlands.

4/10/1705,Lord Peterborough captured Barcelona.

24/7/1704,Admiral Sir George Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovel captured Gibraltar
from the Spanish, during the War of the Spanish
Succession.Gibraltar was formally
ceded to the UK by the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713.

12//9/1703, The Hapsburg Archduke
Ferdinand was proclaimed King of Spain, War of the
Spanish Succession began. France had already, in 1701, begun to
occupy key fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, following the death of the
Spanish monarch Charles
II on 2/10./1700, with no heir.

12//9/1703, The Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand was proclaimed
King of Spain, War of the Spanish Succession began

2/10/1700, The Spanish monarch, Charles II, died, aged 39, with
no heir. England, Austria and Holland
were alarmed that Charles had named Philip, Duke of Anjou, as his successor;
these nations had agreed that Joseph Ferdinand,
Prince of Bavaria, should get the Spanish Crown. Spanish territory would be
ceded to buy off the rival Frenchand
Austrian claimants to the throne, Philip the second grandson of King Louis XIV
and Archduke
Charles, second son of the Hapsburg Emperor Leopold I. However Ferdinand
predeceased the Spanish King, leaving Charles, who was physically and mentally
handicapped, susceptible to the
influences of the French Court. War seemed inevitable,
see 12/9/1703.

22/10/1689, John V, King of Portugal, was born.

19/12/1683, Philip V, King of Spain, was born.

17/9/1665, Philip IV, King of Spain, died, aged 60. He was succeeded by his son, Charles II.

7/11/1659. The war between France and Spain ended. Spain’s
treasury was empty and England had joined on the side of the French.

6/11/1656, Joao V of
Portugal died, aged 53. He was succeeded by his 13-year old son, Alfonso VI.

18/1/1641, Pau Claris proclaimed the Catalan Republic.

1640, Catalonia began a 19-year revolt against Spain, in
orotest at high taxes and suppression of Catalan rights.

1/12/1640. Portugal regained its independence from the Spanish.

15/8/1636, The Spanish besieged Corbie, France.

19/5/1635, France declared
war on Spain.Spain initially had
success, capturing Corbie, near Amiens.However the Spaniards did not follow up their successes and faced with
revolts in Portugal and Catalonia, lost Artois and Roussillion.

31/3/1621, Philip III, King of Spain, died aged 42. He was succeeded by his 15-year old son,
Philip IV.

9/10/1617, The Treaty of Pavia was signed, between Spain and
Savoy.Savoy returned Monferrato to
Mantua.

27/3/1615, Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, died.

8/4/1605, Philip IV, King of Spain, born.

13/9/1598. King Philip II of Spain died after a reign of
over 40 years, aged 71. Spain had
acquired great wealth from its conquest of South America, but had squandered it
in a series of wars, and had suffered the defeat of the Great Armada. He
was succeeded by his fourth wife’s fourth son, Philip III.

29/11/1596.Spain admitted that the Royal Treasury was
bankrupt, drained by a series of wars and especially the attempt to invade
England. Revolts against Spanish rule in the Americas were also costly.

1594, Lisbon closed its spice market to Dutch and English traders; at this
time Portugal was in personal union with
Spain, both being ruled by Philip II, and England was helping the Dutch to
gain independecnce from Spain. This forced traders from those countries to get
their spices directly from India, and
the creation of the Dutch East India Company followed.

10/8/1585, Elizabeth
I of England signed the Treaty of Nonsuch, promising 64,000 foot
soldiers, 1,000 cavalry, and 600,000 florins a year to support Protestant
rebels in The Netherlands against Spain. Although Elizabeth disliked involvement
in foreign European wars, the Spanish presence in The Netherlands was too close
to England to ignore. King Philip II of Spain, who had laid siege to
Antwerp in 1584, saw this Treaty as a declaration of war.

1584, The Escorial Palace was completed, near Madrid, by King Philip II.

14/4/1578, Philip III, King of Spain, was born.

15/6/1572, Jeanne
III, Queen of Navarre, died.

23/4/1563, King
Philip II of Spain began construction of El Escorial.

2/4/1559, The Peace of Cateau-Cambresis, ending the wars of Holy Roman EmperorCharles V
in Europe. Italy was recognised as a Spanish sphere of influence, and Franche
Comte was to be part of the Spanish monarchy. French possession of Metz, Toul
and Verdun was confirmed. A strategic marriage was arranged between King Philip II
of Spain and Elizabeth Valois, daughter of King Henry II of
France.

10/8/1557, The Battle of St Quentin. Spanish forces under the Duke of Savoy
defeated the French under the Constable of Montmorency. The French were
driven out of Italy.

6/6/1557, John III, King of Portugal, died on his 55th
birthday. He was succeeded by his 3-year old grandson, Sebastian.

25/10/1556, Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman
Emperor, retired to a Spanish monastery, dividing his possessions between his
son and his brother.

14/5/1553, Marguerite de Valois, Queen of
Navarre, was born.

21/9/1549, Marguerite d’Angoulmeme, Queen
of Navarre, died.

12/1/1539, The Treaty of Toledo was signed by Charles V
(Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Spain), and Francis I (King of France).Each agreed to make no further alliances with
England.The origin of this Treaty was
the dispute between King Henry VIII of England and Pope Paul III.

23/2/1530, Carlos
I of Spain was crowned Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Italy
by Pope
Clement V.

22/4/1529, The Treaty
of Saragossa divided the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal, along a north-south line 17 degrees
9297.5 leagues) east of the Moluccas.

14/4/1527, King Philip of Spain was born; in 1588 he sent
an Armada against England but was
defeated.

24/2/1525.The Battle of Pavia.
Pavia, held by the French, had been under siege by Spanish forces since October
1524. Italy itself was a territory being fought over by the rival powers of
France, Germany, Turkey and Spain. The French under King Charles VIII defended Pavia
with cavalry and cannon, but the Spanish had adopted the arquebus or
hackenbushe, an early version of the handgun; this weapon replaced the Spanish
crossbow. The arquebus meant an
unskilled infantryman could kill a skilled knight and Pavia was the start of
the dominance of the handgun as a military weapon.

13/12/1521, Manuel I, King of Portugal, died aged 52. He was succeeded by his
son, Joao
III.

1517, Aragon became part of a united Spain.

23/1/1516, Ferdinand V, King of Castile and Leon, also Ferdinand II of Aragon,
died aged 63. He was succeeded by his 16-year old grandson, Carlos I, then a
student in Flanders.

2/12/1515, Gonzalo Cordoba., Spanish military commander,
died (born 16/3/1453).

12/3/1507, Cesare Borgia died at the siege of Viana in
Navarre.

25/9/1506, Philip the Handsome, King of Spain, died suddenly aged 28, at Burgos. His
wife went mad after his death. Her father Ferdinand II of Aragon ruled as Regent of Castile, as Ferdinand V.

20/5/1506. Christopher
Columbus, Italian navigator who discovered the New World in 1492, died
aged 55 in Valladolid, Spain. See 3/8/1492. He was virtually penniless. However
his discovery of favourable winds in both directions across the Atlantic opened
up the way for European exploration of the New World.

24/11/1504, Isabella, Queen of Castille and Leon, died
aged 53. She was succeeded by her daughter Juana and Juana’s husband, Philip. However they remained in
Flanders, and Ferdinand
ruled instead.

23/2/1503, At the Battle of Ruvo, the Spanish defeated the
French.

20/1/1503, Seville, in Castille, was awarded exclusive rights
to trade with the New World.

6/6/1502, John III, King of Portugal, was born.

21/5/1502, The Portuguese
explorer Joao de Nova discovered
the island of St Helena, in the south Atlantic.

11/5/1502.Christopher Columbus left on
his fourth voyage of exploration, returning on 7/11/1504.

12/2/1502. Spain expelled all Moors (Muslims)
who had not been baptised as Christians.See 30/3/1492

7/6/1498.Christopher Columbus
left on his third journey of exploration.

25/12/1495, At the Second Battle of Acentejo, Spanish forces
crushed the natives of the island of Tenerife, destroying the last bastion of
resistance on the Canary Islands.

25/10/1495, King Manuel I became rule of Portugal, on the death of King Joao
II, aged 40.

7/6/1494, The Treaty of Tordesillas was signed. In
1493, Pope
Alexander VI had set a line at 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde
islands from north to south Pole; Spain had the rights to colonise west of this
line, Portugal to the east. The 1494
Treaty moved this line a further 270 leagues to the west.This resulted in Portugal
having possession of both Brazil and Africa; in turn this greatly facilitated
the expansion of the slave trade, providing cheap labour for the sugar
plantations.

25/9/1493.Christopher Columbus
left Spain on a second voyage of exploration with a fleet of 20 ships.

4/3/1493.Christopher Columbus
arrived back in Lisbon, then travelled to Spain.

3/8/1492.Christopher Columbus
left Palos de la Frontera, Andalusia, south-west Spain, on his first voyage to
search for a passage to the Far East via the Atlantic. He actually found the
Americas.He sailed in the Santa
Maria, accompanied by the Nina and the Pinta.Columbus had delayed his sailing until after 2/8/1492
as that was the deadline for Jews to leave Spain; therefore Columbus was now
departing from a ‘cleansed’ Spain.

11/4/1492, Marguerite d’Angoulmeme, Queen of Navarre, was
born.

2/1/1492. The Spanish Army under Queen
Isabella recaptured Granada from the Moors.This had been the last remaining Moslem
territory in Spain.

25/11/1491, The siege of Granada, last stronghold of the Moors
in Spain, began.

4/12/1489.The fall of Baza,
in southern Spain. The Catholic Spanish army had besieged this town, held by
the Muslims; both siege and defence were financed by
the sale of the jewels of the ladies on both sides. Baza had been a
bishopric since at least before 302, when its bishop was recorded as attending
the Council of Elvira.

31/8/1486, The Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz set sail for
India.

1/5/1486. The navigator Christopher Columbus persuaded Queen Isabella of Spain to grant him funds to find
a western sea passage to the Indies.

29/4/1483, Gran
Canaria, the main of the Canary Islands was conquered by the Kingdom of
Castile, an important step in the
expansion of Spain.

29/8/1481, John II of Portugal began to rule in his own right.

6/3/1480, The Treaty
of Toledo: Ferdinand
and Isabella of Spain recognised the African conquests of Alphonso of
Portugal, and he ceded the Canary Islands to Spain.

20/1/1479, Ferdinand II took the throne of Aragon and
ruled together with his wife Isabella, Queen of Castile, over most of the
Iberian Peninsula.In 1492 they conquered Granada, ending 700 years of
Moorish rule.

22/7/1478, Philip II, King of Spain, was born. Son of Emperor
Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, he married Joanna the Mad; she inherited the throne of
Castile in 1504 but due to her insanity Philip assumed full control in 1506.

19/10/1469, The Crowns of Castile and Aragon were joined
with the marriage of Prince Ferdinand of Aragon and the Infanta
Isabella of Castile

1467, The sheep population of Castile was
2.7 million, up from 1.5 million in 1300. The recovery of the southern Spajish
winter pastures for sheep was a powerful economic incentive for La Reconquista, the conquest of Spain
from the Moors.

13/11/1460, Prince Henry the Navigator died,
aged 66.

1458, King Alfonso V of Aragon (also Alfonso I of
Sicily and Sardinia), born 1385, died. He succeeded his father Ferdinand the
Just in 1416,

21/7/1454, Juan
II of Castile died and was succeeded by his son, Enrique.

22/4/1451, Isabella, Queen of Castile
and Leon was born.

11/8/1433, John I, King of Portugal, died.

1421, Prince Henry the Navigator
founded a school of navigation at Sagres.

1419, The Portuguese occupied Madiera.

2/4/1416, Ferdinand I, King of Aragon, died.

1415, Prince Henry led a Portuguese
expedition to capture the port of Ceuta from the Moors. On finding treasure
from Senegal, which had been brought by caravan across the Sahara, he decided
to try and reach Senegal by sea. However his sailors feared sailing too far
south, in case they fell off the dege of the (flat) earth, and they also
believed the hot sun would scorchthew black,
like the Africans.

4/3/1394, Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese Prince,
was born, son of King John I.

9/5/1386, The Treaty of Windsor cemented the alliance between
England and Portugal.

14/8/1385, The Battle of Aljubarrota.
Portugal
secured its independence against Spain.

22/10/1383, Ferdinand I, King of Portugal, died.

23/3/1369, Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, was
murdered by his brother, Henry.

13/10/1340.In alliance with
Portugal, Alfonso
XI of Castile conquered the Moors at the River Salado.

30/8/1334, Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, was born.

7/9/1312, Ferdinand IV, King of Castile and Leon, died.

15/6/1300, The city of Bilbao
received its royal foundation charter.

12/9/1297, King Denis of Portugal
and King
Ferdinand IV of Castile signed
the Treaty of Alcanizes. The
geographic limits of Portugal were fixed permanently, with the
exception of São Félix de Galegos,
lost in 1640 and Olivenza, lost in
1801.

1292, The town of Tarifa was captured by Sancho IV of Castile from the Muslims (see 710 AD). The Muslims attempted
to retake the town in 1294, besieging it, but were repulsed.

17/1/1287, King Alfonso III of Aragon
conquered the island of Minorca from
the Moors.

1284, King Alfonso X of Leon and
Castile died. Born 1226, he succeeded his father Ferdinand III
as king in 1252. He was deposed by his second son, Sancho, as king in 1282.

4/1/1248, King Sancho II of Portugal died. He was
succeeded by King
Alfonso III (born 2/5/1210, died 16/2/1279)..

1/12/1247, A rebellion arose
among the Muslim subjects of the Crown of Aragon in the region of Valencia. As a punishment, the
king issued an order of expulsion of the Muslims from his realm leading
numerous people into exile in Andalusia and North Africa in the subsequent year.

22/5/1244, James I of Aragontook the Muslim-held
city of Janita after several months of siege This success was followed by the
capture of Biar later that year

28/9/1238, James I of Aragon captured the city of Valencia from the Muslims, who
retreated to Granada

24/9/1230. On the death of Alfonso IX
of Leon, Ferdinand III of Castile was
accepted as King of Leon, unifying
the two kingdoms.
See 29/6/1236.

1224, The town of San Felipe Jativa was taken from the Arabs by King James I.

16/7/1212. .Battle of
Navas de Tolosa, near Toledo
The Christian kingdoms of Spain decisively defeated the Almohads. This victory
however left the Kingdom
of Castile in a difficult financial position as the numerous soldiers
had to be paid by the treasury

1185, Death of King Alfonso
Henriques I of Portugal. He
had proclaimed himself King of Portugal in 1139,after a successful
defeat of the Muslims, seizing power from his mother; his father, Henry of
Burgundy, First Count of Portugal, had died when Alfonso
(born 1110) was just two years old. He
defeated the Muslims at Ourique (1139) and Lisbon
(1147), later taking from them the provinces of Galicia, Estremadura and Elvas.

28/10/1147.
The Moslems in Lisbon surrendered peacefully to an allied
Christian force under Portugal’sAlfonso
Henriques I. The Moslem inhabitants were allowed to depart
peacefully.

7/10/1147, Almeria, one of the most important maritime and commercial centres of
al-Andalus, fell into Christian hands after two months of siege

25/7/1139, King Alfonso
Henriques I (1110-85) of Portugal defeated the Muslims at Ourique.

1134, King Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre
(acceeded 1105) died. He took Saragossa and
Tarragona from theMuslims, heavily defeating them near Valencia in 1126.

11/12/1118. The Christians captured
Saragossa, Spain, from the Muslims.

1109, Death of King Alfonso I
of Castile
and Leon. Born 1030, he acceded in 1065.

17/6/1094.Valencia,
Spain, was captured by the Christians from the Arabs; the city surrendered due to starvation after a 20
month siege.

25/5/1085.The Christian, Alfonso VI
of Leon, captured Toledo (the old Visigothic capital) from the Arabs.

1035, The House of Aragon was founded
by Ramiro I,
illegitimate son of Sancho the Great of Navarre. In 1131 it was
united by marriage with the rulers of Barcelona.

939, The Arabs lost Madrid to
the Kingdom of Leon.

866, Alfonso III, the Great (848-910)
succeeded his father, Ordono I, as king of Leon, Galicia and
Asturias. He repulsed Muslim attacks and extended his rule over parts of
Portugal.

25/10/732.The
Frankish General, Charles Martel, won a major victory over the
Arabs at Poitiers. In 718 an Arab siege of Constantinople had been
defeated. The Arabs had crossed the Pyrenees, sacked Bordeaux and Poitiers,
and were advancing on the wealthy monastery of St Martin at Tours. Eudo, Duke of Aquitaine, appealed to Charles who
brought the Frankish army south to help. The Arabs, their leader killed,
retreated south, probably to put down a Berber uprising in north Africa. More early history
of France here.

720, The Arabs invading Spain crossed the Pyrenees into France,
and took Narbonne.

715, Lisbon fell to the Arabs.

712, Seville conquered by the Arabs.

19/7/711, Battle of Guadalete: UmayyadMoors' victory over theVisigothic army. Visigothic king Roderic (Rodrigo in Spanish and Portuguese) died in
the battle.

710, The Spanish town of Tarifa, in the far south, was
conquered by the Moors – the first part
of Spain to be occupied by them. It was retaken by the Spanish in 1292
after a long siege by Sancho IV of Castile.

585, Leovigild conquered the whole of Spain.

567, The
Visigoths under King Leovigild drove the
Byzantines from western Spain.

534, Toledo became capital of the Visigoth Kingdom of Spain.

28/12/484. Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths
in Spain, succeeded his father Euric or Evaric. His dominions included all of
Spain, except for the north-west, and also Aquitaine and much of Provence.

4/10/456, The Visigoths
under King
Theodoric II, acting on orders of Avitus, invaded Spain with an army of Burgundians,Franks and Goths, They
defeated the Suebi; this shattered
the power of the Suebi. During the battle Rechiar was captured
and later executed.